The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), in partnership with the World Wildlife Federation (WWF), identified 18 villages in the area to carry out community-based projects aimed at conserving biodiversity and improving local people’s livelihoods.

In Afghanistan, UNDP is bringing sustainable hydro-electricity to Afghanistan's rural and most remote areas. By October 2013, 127 micro hydro power plants had been built, benefiting close to 150,000 people.

The Danube River flows through many Eastern European countries before reaching the Black Sea. For decades, the discharge of polluted water into the Danube resulted in nutrient over-enrichment in the Black Sea, affecting fish stocks, beaches and the incidence of waterborne disease. UNDP worked closely with the GEF in its Danube and Black Sea programmes. Along with the GEF, the European Union, the World Bank and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development funded the programmes.

Ludmila Abramciuc is the first ever woman to head a renewable energy company in Moldova. In her hometown of Balti, she manages a thriving biomass fuel briquette business – “Ecobricheta” - that has greatly expanded recently with support from a programme funded by the European Union and implemented and co-financed by UNDP. Through assistance from the Energy and Biomass Project, as well as the Energy Efficiency Agency, Ludmila’s business has recently increased its output threefold.